Former head of VGH emergency department led Boston bombing trauma team

Kevin Griffin, Vancouver Sun04.17.2013

Armed police officers secure the main entrance to Brigham and Women’s Hospital April 15, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts. Many who were wounded when two explosions struck near the finish line of the Boston Marathon were brought to Brigham and Women’s. AFP PHOTO/Stan HONDASTAN HONDA/AFP/Getty ImagesSTAN HONDA
/ AFP/Getty Images

People attend a vigil for victims of the Boston Marathon bombings at Boston Common on Tuesday in Boston. The twin bombings, which occurred near the marathon finish line, resulted in the deaths of three people and left many others with amputated limbs.Spencer Platt, Getty Images
/ Vancouver Sun

Related

The former head of the emergency department at Vancouver General Hospital was the doctor who led the trauma team in a Boston hospital treating patients injured by Monday’s bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon.

Dr. Ron Walls said that shortly after 3 p.m., his office and cellphones began ringing at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Then he heard sirens. He said he’d never heard anything like it before.

“It was as if every vehicle with a siren turned its siren on and started moving at the same time,” he told the Canadian Medical Association Journal in a story published today.

Walls, who was born in Prince George, and his team at the hospital had twice rehearsed their response to a similar event — a bomb exploding at a mass gathering. And then it actually happened, at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

Two bomb blasts killed three people and injured more than 170.

Walls’ trauma centre at Brigham was one of a handful of level-one trauma centres in Boston that treated casualties. In the first hour after the two blasts, 28 patients were treated at Brigham, according to the article written by Laura Eggertson in the journal, published by the Canadian Medical Association.

Patients had shrapnel wounds along with head and neck injuries. Some had damaged ear drums and others, smoke inhalation and burns. Some injuries were life-threatening.

“We had patients with very extensive lower-extremity injuries — large pieces of their muscle and skin and bone missing from the blast,” Walls said in the CMAJ story. There were also “very bad fractures — the type of fracture you can only get with a tremendous amount of force.”

Walls went to medical school at the University of B.C. and then took specialty training in Denver. In 1986, he became head of the emergency department at VGH. In 1993, he was lured away by what he called the “most prestigious academic institution on the continent” — Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which is a Harvard University teaching hospital.

Another Canadian, Dr. Emily Aaronson of Toronto, was also part of Brigham’s disaster response team. Less than an hour after starting her shift on Monday, the second-year-resident at Brigham was treating patients with open fractures — some with bones splintered or crushed.

Part of the trauma team’s emergency preparedness was dealing with the possibility that the hospital itself could become a secondary target. There was also the possibility of more bombs going off, which could increase the number of patients coming into the hospital.

“We didn’t want the providers at the bedside to worry about that, but we had an immediate security response, including the police department, to protect the hospital against any secondary target,” Walls said in the article.

“We also brought in devices to immediately detect radiation and make sure there wasn’t any contamination, so it wasn’t a dirty bomb.”

Walls had five fresh trauma teams ready and waiting for additional casualties at the height of the incident. In constant contact with the hospital’s overall disaster response coordinator, Walls coordinated the work of the individual trauma teams.

Brigham and Women’s treated 31 patients aged 16 to 65. Walls told the CMAJ that the bombing was the biggest mass casualty event he’d experienced in the 28 years he has been a doctor working in the emergency department.

Walls said lives were saved because of the emergency medical services at the Boston Marathon and preparations by the hospital and the city’s emergency response teams.

“We had drilled this exact scenario, this idea of having a bomb going off in a mass gathering in town,” Walls told the CMAJ. “Nobody is ever prepared for this, but we were prepared.

“I would just suggest to people that if they think these drills are silly or unnecessary or that this can’t happen — it can happen.”

Walls is the chair of the department of emergency medicine at Brigham and professor of medicine in the division of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School. He’s a peer reviewer for five major emergency medicine journals and has more than 130 scientific publications, including 54 original articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Share

Former head of VGH emergency department led Boston bombing trauma team

Saskatoon loves its Christmas lights. The Enchanted Forest draws thousands of vehicles each week. The late Bob Hinitt worked for months building his light display, which drew thousands of cars each year to Wiggins Avenue. And Scott Lambie on Clinkskill Drive has continued the tradition with more than 70,000 dancing lights (up from 50,000 last […]

When it comes to gift giving, they say it’s the thought that counts. But many are wondering if Mayor Drew Dilkens was thinking at all when he gave Olympic superstar Michael Phelps — whose battles with booze are well known — a big bottle of Canadian Club whisky.

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.